Selective printing mechanism.



N0. 889,503. PATENTED JUNE 2, 1908.

- E. D. BELKNAP. I

SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 3.1907.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 889,503. PATENTED JUNE 2, 1908.

E. D. BELKNAP. v SELECTIVE PRINTING.MEGHANI SM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 3.1907.

4 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

[dwl'n 0. Bel/(na No. 889,503. PATENTED JUNE 2, 1908.

. E. D. BELKNAP.

SBLBGTIVB PRINTING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 3.1907.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

cannon 06,

No. 889,503. PATENTED JUNE 2, 1908.

E. D. BELKNAP.

SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISM.

APPLIUAT ION FILED AUG. 3.1907- 4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

i {I W! N I al genre:- I 51 Mafia: 110mm I velops containing same.

EDWIN D. BELKNAP, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 2, 1908.

Application filed August 3; 1907. Serial No. 386,950.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, EDwrN D. BELKNAP, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Selective Printing Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates generally to printing mechanism, and specifically comprises an improved apparatus forprinting a selected number from a list or series of mail addresses.

.In certain lines of business, such as industrial life insurance, there are long lists of addresses to which notices or other documents have to be mailed at different intervals of time. Thus,in industrial life insurance some policy holders pay their premiums once a year, some once every six months, others once every three months and still others once every month. It is often customary to keep these addresses on stencil cards which are fed through a machine such for instance as that shown in U. S. Patent No. 609,402, granted to F. D. Belknap August 23rd,1898, to print said addresses upon the notification cards, or on- These cards are arranged alphabetically or geographically, and sometimes it is necessary to print all of the address contained by them, while at others it is desired to print only those whose premiums fall due in a certain month. I have invented a simple attachment for this and other forms of addressing machine which enables the opeiitor to set the machine so that it will automatically select the stencil cards which are to be used in printing and pass the others through into the collecting magazine movable contact finger.

without printing from them. The best form of apparatus at present known to me embodying my invention is illustrated in the accompanying sheets of drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a machine with my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the magnetically controlled clutch which operates the inking mechan'sim. Fig. 3 is a further detail of the trip piece of the clutch. Fig. 4 is a side ele vation, and Fig. 5 is a detail plan view of the Figs. 6 and 7 are specimens of cards, and Fig. -8 shows a form of apparatus for automatically feeding the envelops 'or other articles to be printed.

Throughout the drawings, like reference figures indicate like parts.

1 is the magazine of stencil cards readyfor use, and 2 is the magazine in which they are collected after use.

3 is the guideway along which the cards are pushed by the reciprocating slide i to the rotary inking mechanism 5. The slide 4 is operated by the link 6, lever 7, pivoted to the frame at S, and to the eccentric rod 9. The

eccentric 1.0 is on the main driving shaft 11.

On this shaft is fastened one member 12 of a clutch (see Fig. 3). The other member 13 of which is on a sleeve 14 loosely mounted on said shaft. On the outer end of this sleeve 14 is a gear wheel 15 which transmits motion through-the train of gearing 16 to the inking mechanism.

The two members of the clutch a e locked togetherwhen the pin 17 is driven by the spring 18 into a recess 19 in the clutch member fast on the shaft. After one revolution the pin 17 is withdrawn by its notch 20 engaging the curved face of the trip 21. This trip piececan only be withdrawn from such engagement by theelectromagnet 22 attract? ing the armature 23, connected to such trip piece.

The coils of the electromagnet 22 are in a circuit 24 in which is included the battery or other source of current 25. One terminal of this circuit is connected to the stationary contact piece 26 which is insulated from the rest of the machine, and the other terminal is connected to the movable yielding finger 27. The finger 27 is pivoted on the cross head 28 by pin 29, and normally held up by spring 30. Cross head 28. is adjustably mounted on lever 31 pivoted to the machine at 32 and vibrated. by the cam 33 on the main shaft 11.

The finger 27, as shown, is capable of twelve diflerent adjustments The cross head 28 has three holes 63, through any one of which-the thumb screw 34 may be instencil card 42, shown in Fig. 7, has only one cut-away portion 43, which corresponds to the extreme left hand position of adjustment of the finger.

Any convenient form of device may be employed for feeding the envelop blanks, or

other articles to be-printed. I have illus-.

trated in Fig. 8, the envelop feeding device shown and described in Patent No. 592,603, granted October 26, 1897, to F. D. Belknap.

50 represents a set of curved spring fingers mounted on shaft 51 journaled in housing 52. Spiral spring 53 normally retracts these fingers into the position shown. When the teeth on mutilated gear wheel 54 on the shaft 61 of the inking mechanism engage the teeth of gear wheel 55 on shaft 51, the fingers are vibrated toward the left and force the bottom envelo in the magazine 56 down the curved gui es 57 to the inking mechanism, and are then retracted by the spring 53 to their original position when the mutilated gear 54 lets go of the gear wheel 55.

In operation of my invention, the stencil card feeding mechanism operates to feed a card forward at each revolution of the main shown in Fig.- 6. Those to be used every three months would have four cutaway por-.

'tive.

shaft. The inking mechanism is normally inoperative, the clutch being out of gear. If cards having-no cut-away portion in line with the movable finger contact are fed to the inking mechanism, the two contact pieces do not touch. and no current passes through the coils of the magnet, the clutch is not tripped into action, and the inking mechanism and envelop feeding mechanism remain inopera The cards are thus fed through without printing; When a card is fed to the inking mechanism which has a cutaway portion opposite to the movable finger, the said finger will strike the stationary contact, complete the electric circuit, ener ize the magnet, withdraw the trip piece, a low the clutch to engage and give the inking mechanism one revolution w1th corresponding operation ofthe envelop feeding mechanism.

By giving the movable fin er twelve positions of adjustment, the mac he will handle business for the twelve months of the year.'

Stencil cards which are to be used to print their addresses every month in the year would have twelve cutaway portions as tions evenly disposed one from the other, while those to be sent out-only once a year would have but one cutaway portion corresponding in location to the particular month in which the cardwas to be used, as shown in Fig. 7. All cards would, however,' be kept together in alphabetical or geographical or other order, and if at any time it were desired to send mail matter to all the addresses on the list, the cards could be fed through a machine not equipped with my herein described attachment.

The advantages of my invention comprise the selective actionof the apparatus which permits all the stencil cards to be ke t together and handled in a body, though on y the desired ones are selected for the printing operation. This obviates the necessity of keeping the different classes of cards separate, and the consequent recurrence of confusion through mistakes in filing said cards.

It is obvious that various forms of mech anism could be employed to carryout my invention, so long as a series of printing devices be fed through the machine consecutively and the inking mechanism be automatically permitted only to operate and render certain of said printing devices effective while others pass through without effecting any printin Having, t erefore, described my invention, I claim:'

1. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards, mechanism for feeding said cards to said inking mechanism, and means causing said inking mechanism to operate only as certain cards are fed through.

' 2. The combination of an inking mechanism, a blank feeding mechanism, a series of stencil cards, mechanism for feeding said stencil cards through the inking mechanism one after the other and means causing said blank feeding and inking mechanisms to operate only when certain of the cards are fed through. l

3. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards, mechanism for feeding said cards to said inking mechanism,

and means causing said inking mechanism to operate'only as certain cards are fed through, said means comprising anormally disengaged clutch in the driving gear of the inking mechanism, and devices cooperating with the stencil card within the grasp of the inking mechanism to cause the clutch elements to engage only when certain of said cards are within the grasp of the inking mechanism.

4. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards, mechanism for feedin said cardsto said inkingmechanism, and e ectrically controlled means causing said inking mechanism to operate only as certain cards are fed through.

5. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards, having difierently arranged cut-away portions, mechanism for feeding all of said cards to the inking mechanism, and means cooperating with the cut-away portions of some of the cards to cause the inking mechanism to operate only when those particular cards are fed to it.

6. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards, having diflerently arranged cut-away portions, mechanism for feedmg all of said cards to the inking mechanism, and means coiiperating with the cut-away portions of some of the cards to cause the inking mechanism to operate only when those particular cards are fed to it, said means comprising ingfin er of electrical y conductive material locate onone side of the path of the cards, a

a reciprocating yield--- circuit connecting the said finger and con tact piece, a source of current supply and a magnetically operated driving clutch for the inking mechanism, thecoils of whose electromagnets are also in said circuit.

7. The combination of an inking mechanism, a series of stencil cards having cutaway ortions differently arranged, mechanism for eeding said cards to the inking mechanism, an electrical contact on one side of the path of the cards located at the point in said path at which the cutaway ortions of certam of said cards would be w en fed to the inking ,mechanism, a reci rocating contact piece on the other side oft e patho posite to the first contact, a normally open c utch in the drivmg gear of the inkin mechanism and means for throwing said cutch into engagement operated by the flow of current when the two a ove described contacts come together through the cutaway portions of any of the said cards.

- Signed at New York, N. Y. this 26th day 

